Ray Boshara, director of the Center for Household Financial Stability at the St. Louis Fed, discusses research from the center suggesting that age/birth year, education and race/ethnicity increasingly matter for building wealth and financial security.
St. Louis Fed Senior Advisor Ray Boshara has referred to the weak household balance sheet as one of the core economic challenges of our time, suggesting that households must focus on rebuilding their balance sheets—including securing the right levels and types of savings, debts and assets. Read an abridged version of his congressional testimony in the first of a series of articles on this topic.
Surprising many, research has demonstrated that poor people can in fact save and build assets. They just need a well-structured opportunity, like the rest of us. This article summarizes this and other surprising findings from the last 15 years about how the poor save and what difference it makes to their balance sheets, their attitudes and behavior, and their prospects for moving up the economic ladder.
